groovenectar wrote:I'm not suprised that no one has mentioned PSPad; if it were more well known, I'm sure that more people would be recommending it. In my opinion, it's the best free editor out there, and the author is constantly adding features.

Let me encourage you all to try it, and compare it with the editor that you use now. Take all things into consideration, including details such as the size of the program/load time and maybe even price.

I have tried many of the editors that have been mentioned in this thread, and have passed them off to the side. PSPad is one that I've stuck with because I have not found one better. Let me know if you find one that you feel is better!

and don't really believe that its that good. Further more, for constant development its absolutely not good enough.
Therefore it seems that its worth investing into something like Zend Studio as now you will also get a free developer license for Zend Platform

i would disagree. Dreamweaver does TOO much for you (Like writes really crappy HTML), things you don't even want to use. It has no descent intelli sense, neither does it have support for versioning and debugging
You are way better of writing whole code for yourself, especially if you are doing html as if you are experienced with it: you are able to SEE how the page will look like, just from reading the code.

And for php itself: how come ppl still didn't realize that the only way to actually get what every php developer needs is to use an editor designed by php developers themselves.
Especially with such a big company behind as Zend Technologies, which wrought you PHP from the start =)

But for beginners any editor works. its when you come to a more professional lvl you can see the difference

Heh, people sure like choosing easy ways around: DW that makes everything for them and they have not a clue how bad code it auto generates (when it comes to HTML).Still quite worthless in a long run for heavy PHP work. but its good enough for the start. I think i used DW after Notepad (or was that other way around?)

Then it was Zend Studio (which is still great, except maybe for the Eclipse version which seems to suck). So now evaluating Netbeans Early Access for PHP which is quite nice especially due to the fact I'm working a lot with Java lately and Netbeans rocks for that. Gathering several languages into one familiar IDE is nice idd

From someone who has used a few different PHP editors. I would deffinatly say that Zend Studio is the best that i have used.

I've used:

Notepad

Dream Weaver (was rubbish for use with php the only commands that it understood where echo and include, it also writes terrible html, i only used it when i wanted a visual version of my page while i wrote the html part)

Crimson Edittor (i'm not sure if that is the correct name but somthing like that, wasn't that great)

PSpad (still use it a bit, it's good for formating the php although you do have to correct it sometimes)

Zend Studio (the best editor i have used, it actually understands the code you write and advises you when you make mistakes, it is made by the people who created php after-all.)

Adobe just released the stable version of their popular IDE, Dreamweaver. Now in version CS4 (or version 10 if you like to keep track of it that way), Dreamweaver continues to be the editor of choice for many PHP web developers.

Seems that almost everyone has their favorite editor. Even someone saying that Vi is a good editor. Well, Vi works, but it is the biggest pain in the ass I've ever used for an editor.

I'm going to mention two editors here - because I use them both.

PHPEdNuSphere's PHPEd is a real tough contender, featuring remote database connectivity, a local installation of PHP (both 4 and 5 if you like) and MySQL, language-specific, customizable highlighting, a great debugger with normal watch and other features, quick access to PHP Functions, as well as on-board manuals for JavaScript, NuSoap, Smarty, PHP, Postgres, CSS, HTML and more. The Workspace and project organization is great.

I like to see as much of the screen as possible, and I hate cluttered editors. PHPEd keeps things handy while keeping them out of the way, using thin, pull-out sidebars.

Also of note - I can run my PHP code locally in any browser, and I can set FireFox or Internet Explorer to run from the "Run" command inside PHPEd. Price: $300., but often on sale for 30% off.

BoxerI bought my first copy of Boxer in 1992, (at just $10 less than it is today) and have been using it ever since because David, the originator of the product, just can't quit adding new features! No, I'm not hung up on this editor just because I have been using it for so long. Trust me - I've tried many. I have an editor fetish. I just keep going back to what is feature rich and easy to use.

Boxer's search and replace functions are darn near ideal. It's macro language is GREAT and easy to pick up on.

With a very good and easy to edit project manager, customizable syntax highlighting, the ability to add user-defined tools to your toolbar menu, an online color-picker, OEM and ANSI charts, spell-checker, calculator, calendar, auto-complete (if you like that), 6 different types of case conversion and much, much more, Boxer holds more features than I have ever seen in a editor. Price for Boxer is $59.95.

I disagree with you on the Zend editor. Sorry - I can't debate specific points, as it has been 1.5 years since I used it, but I found the Zend editor to be very slow and clutsy to use, and did not contain some of the features I would expect in an editor.

Dreamweaver continues to be the editor of choice for many PHP web developers.

How the heck do you write good php (or even PHP at all) with Dreamweaver?

2nd question: Why use a code generator that takes you just as long to code as it does by hand, writes junky markup (I can only imagine what it would do with PHP) and does not allow you the flexibility of simply doing it right in the first place. I've never been able to understand this.

P.S. I don't mean this to sound arrogant - there are so many proponents of Dreamweaver in this discussion that I would really like to hear your thoughts.

Another note: Yes, I know, you can wysiwyg with Dreamweaver, and, in some instances that can save you some time, but my experience in using MX found me still spending extra time dinking with the code Dreamweaver had constructed to the point where I found myself saving no time whatsoever, and becoming frustrated in the process.

You will get a lot of help editors like dreamviewer , eclipese are available, but the notepad ++ is a simple and powerful editor with out any in buil code support. This wll help you to develop a clean thorough php applications with out any coding support from the editors.

If you are looking for a good editor for code support then it would be better to use eclipse.